Telstra, Google in spam spat

Telstra BigPond has slammed Google's spam fighting credentials,
claiming the Gmail team was not proactive enough in monitoring spam
sent by its users.

The scathing comments came after some of Google's mail servers
were blacklisted by BigPond for being used to distribute spam.

The blacklisting resulted in BigPond customers being unable to
receive emails originating from some Gmail accounts.

According to comScore Media Metrix, Gmail is the third largest
free email provider - behind Yahoo Mail and Windows Live Mail -
with 51 million users worldwide. It is unclear how many of these
accounts were blocked by BigPond.

On the popular Whirlpool broadband community forum, a number of
members reported experiencing the issue as early as March 23, but
BigPond spokesman Craig Middleton said the blacklisting had only
just been removed.

He said Google had approached BigPond about the issue last
Thursday but did not immediately take steps to address it.

"They approached us for assistance and we responded straight
away with advice on how to get delisted," Middleton said.

"It's something they need to do and the duration of their
listing indicates they did not act quickly on the issue."

Middleton went on to say "[Google] do not proactively monitor
spam blacklists, although it is a practice we follow to minimise
the duration of any blacklisting of BigPond email servers."

Google spokesman Rob Shilkin denied Telstra's claims but did not
comment on how long Google had been aware of the blacklisting.

"As well as our own powerful spam filters, we very actively
monitor blacklists and work with ISPs throughout the world,"
Shilkin said.

"We know how important Gmail is to our users and so take these
issues very seriously - our engineers worked around the clock to
remove a network of spammers from our system last Thursday and
Friday."

Free email services such as Gmail are often used to send spam,
as accounts can be registered easily and at no cost.

Blacklistings are typically removed quickly after the owner of
the email service blocks the specific customers identified as
spammers.

BigPond uses an anti-spam solution from Trend Micro in deciding
which mail servers to blacklist.

A Trend Micro spokesman, Adam Biviano, said whether other
internet service providers that used the same anti-spam product had
also blacklisted Gmail depended on their specific
implementation.

Biviano praised Google's handling of the issue, saying in the
past week Gmail had dropped from 9th to 56th place in the Trend
Micro ranking of spam volume by email provider.